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pronunciation</title></head><body>
<div>At 11:02 AM -0600 4/3/01, Victoria Neufeldt wrote:</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>How free is free anyway? I don't
know of any studies of this. But I was<br>
thinking of my own prons, and I too vary between /ai/ and /e/ for
'either'<br>
and 'neither', but usually using /ai/ as the pron I grew up
with. (There's<br>
nothing pretentious about it, as far as I'm concerned.)
However, in<br>
thinking about contexts, I see that it isn't a free variation, but
seems to<br>
be determined by context. E.g. I don't think I use /ai/ in the
phrase "me<br>
neither". It wouldn't sound right, perhaps because I've
only heard the<br>
phrase with the /e/ pron, or perhaps because the /e/ pron echoes the
/e/ in<br>
'me'. </blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div>agreed; me n[ay]ther sounds impossible. On the other
hand</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>"She hasn't given back your homework--or mine
either" --either [iy] or [ay] possible.</div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Other examples of variation for me are
'proved' and 'proven' for past<br>
participle. Here it's syntax or rhythm that determines the
choice, I think.<br>
At the end of a clause, 'proven' seems to fit better ("It hasn't
been<br>
proven" vs. "You haven't proved it"). But I'm
sure there are instances<br>
where I've used 'proved' in the first construction and 'proven' in
the</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>second, without thinking twice about it.
</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div>for me, and i suspect others, the more adjectival, the better
"proven" sounds and the worse "proved":</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>a proven liar</div>
<div>innocent until proven guilty</div>
<div>a proven remedy for...</div>
<div>unproven allegations (see below)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>I think that's why "proved" sounds better than
"proven" as a participle with a following object ("You
haven't proved it").</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>I argued in my "spitten image" ADS paper in January
that this is true for a number of -ed/-en variants, including
these:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font
color="#000000"><b
> <span
></span> graven</b> image (vs. They<b>
engraved</b> this image)<br>
<b><x-tab> </x-tab></b>(new-)<b>mown</b> lawn
(vs. I've<b> mowed</b> that lawn)<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>(un)<b>proven</b>
allegation (vs. You haven't<b> proved</b> that allegation)<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>(store-)<b>boughten</b> clothes (vs. Have
you<b> bought</b> any new clothes?)<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>(clean-)<b>shaven</b> face (vs. Have you<b>
shaved</b> your face?)</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">larry</font></div>
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